Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (9 page)

‘
Look before you leap. It’s too far for you to make it.
’

"So says you, I don’t have a choice," she didn’t have time to delay, she just charged and threw
herself at the next building with as much momentum as she could get. She fell a few inches short of
landing directly on the roof. Instead she slammed into the ledge of the building, the edge of the roof
catching her right under the ribs and stealing the air from her lungs. She struggled to hold onto the roof
and by the time she could breath again she was dangling from her fingertips. She didn’t know how far
of a fall it would be if she did happen to slip, she didn’t think she wanted to find out. Her right arm
spasmed when she tried to pull herself up and she lost her grip with that hand entirely She couldn’t
keep herself from crying out as the right hand slipped away from the ledge and for a moment she
dangled by only her left. Pain shot through her remaining arm holding her weight but she suppressed the
whimper that tried to slip past her lips.

‘
You’re doing to be just fine, you made the jump. Push the pain back and pull yourself
up.’

Some of the calm had drained away from the voice, like perhaps whoever it was might be just a
little worried she was about to fall to her death. She felt like she’d heard the voice before, but this was
the first time in her life that a voice this clear had ever been in her head and she couldn’t place it from
anywhere else. The voice wasn’t telling her anything she wouldn’t have eventually told herself when she
got over the throbbing agony pulsing through her right side. But she’d experienced debilitating pain
before, had nearly died on countless occasions and survived, this was no different.

Jennifer clenched her teeth and forced her right arm to respond with every ounce of self control
she possessed. Even with both hands she couldn’t find much use for the right in its damaged state. It
was there and it helped to lift a little but the left took most of the weight and exertion. She shouted with
the effort, but before her right arm could give out she rolled unto the roof safely. If she’d had time she
would have lain there and let her arm get feeling back. Instead she grabbed the Remington, and past
the loss of feeling aimed and fired at her enemy again. He didn’t look back this time, didn’t even jump
to another roof, just fell, his cry echoing as he tumbled over the edge of the building. She cursed
herself, pumped the shot gun and ran for the side where he’d fallen. She was ready to fire again when
she reached the edge of the building but she couldn’t see him anywhere. "Son of a bitch," she kept her
sights aimed for him but he was just simply gone.

‘Get out of there right now.’

"I’m not finished yet," she claimed, though she was entirely convinced herself that there might
not be a way to stop the monster at this point. She didn’t give up easily, and if there was even the
slightest chance that she could finish this here and now then she would. She leaned into the bricks of
the roof and looked down. She barely had time to scream let alone react but she managed to toss
herself away from the mangled arm that swung at her as she’d leaned over. He’d been hanging there,
maybe he was waiting for her to do what she had, or maybe he was just a blithering idiot. Jennifer
rushed back to where she’d been, leaned so that she could aim at her target and took the shot. The
moron hadn’t moved, her shot hit the shoulder that Manson had disabled earlier and the freak of nature
fell away from the building. She knew now that the Remington was empty, she didn’t bother reloading.
She slung the shotgun, pulled the Beretta from her hip, popped out the useless mag and slapped in a
fresh one. Before she was done screams had erupted from underneath her, she was still debating
whether she should risk taking a shot from up here when he randomly snatched a passerby and with
little effort
slithered down a gutter with the body in tow. "What the hell!"

‘You need to go. Now!’

"FREEZE!"

Jennifer looked down in time to see a uniformed officer pointing his pistol up at her like she was
the bad guy. "Just my luck," she didn’t bother to pay him any mind she just backed away from the
ledge so that he couldn’t see her. She gave a quick once over of her surroundings, but there didn’t
seem to be anyway down. Now that was nerve raking, she couldn’t stop herself from chewing
nervously on her lower lip. No way down, no way out, very inconvenient all around if you asked her.
Why the hell did a building have a roof if there was no way to get on it in the first place.

‘Ready to jump again?’

"You’re crazy, I’d never make it back over there. I’d be better off to just let the cops take me
in."

            
‘I doubt it.’

            
"I didn’t ask now did I," Jennifer stubbornly looked around again, nothing. She couldn’t make
that jump again, she’d almost burst into tears when she’d almost fallen the first time. If there was a
second time she was pretty positive that there wouldn’t be any whimpering, only falling. She took a
deep breath and worked her way to the end of the building where a cop wasn’t aiming a gun at her and
looked down. The window just below her was open, a few feet or less and who knew, maybe she’d
make it.

‘Maybe you wouldn’t.’

"You can go fuck yourself for all I care, this is better than trying that jump again."

‘Dually noted, my most sincere apologies.’

            
"Yeah right," it took her a second to decide but she finally re-holstered the Beretta and slipped
off the ledge and down to the windowsill. She wasn’t very good at breaking and entering, at least not
in the sense that she was actually sneaking in. She could kick down doors and raid peoples homes, no
problem, this was different, harder. You couldn’t make any noise, at least try not to, or you’d get
caught. She moved quickly because she knew that her right arm wouldn’t hold her up for much longer
than a few seconds. It had been naive of her not to have it checked before she’d gone looking for this
bastard again.

With a firm grip on the windowsill she slid into the window with ease. She was glad to know
that even injured she still managed to hold onto some of her stamina. She didn’t draw the Beretta, just
rushed for the nearest exit and ran from the building. No cops caught her, so for now she’d walk away
without the hassle. That was the good news, the bad news was that the monster was still out there,
she’d failed.
 

Chapter 6

At the moment her only goal was to get as far from the buildings where the killings and her and
Manson’s shoot out had taken place. The police were a concern, she certainly didn’t want to be
detained by them, not because it would cause her any harm it wouldn’t be the first time she’d been
taken to a police station in handcuffs, it was simply repeatedly a waste of her time. She had friends in
high places that never failed to bail her out, which she was grateful for of course, she just wished that
they weren’t so tight lipped so she wouldn’t get arrested in the first place. She was heavily armed at
the moment and had ordered Malcolm to go directly to the hospital so her ride was long gone, which
left her with little choice but to stay in the shadows and hope that she could travel the distance it would
require to get outside of the police canvas that was probably already happening.

It seemed ridiculous, the idea that she should have to skulk around in the dark like she was one
of the monsters when she was just trying to stop them. But that was the way of it, and until the world at
large understood the threat that was around them every day that was the way it would have to be.
There were days when she couldn’t decide what was better or worse, some days it seemed like it
would make more sense if the world knew what was going on, that it would be safer for everyone, then
she was in the thick of it and the regular people were around her falling apart into hysterics
in the middle
of a fight and the way the world was couldn’t have made more sense. For as many people who could
handle the monsters there were just as many who couldn’t. Then there were worse case scenarios,
with as many morons in the world that were into praising monsters she wouldn’t be surprised at all if
they were suddenly the next political movement, human rights, blah-blah. In fact she was certain that
more than half the human population at this point would lean that way, they wouldn’t see them for what
they were, they’d only see brooding vampires, not the vermin that they were.

Jennifer spotted red and blue lights and ducked deeper into the shadows before the patrol car
came zooming around the corner. Her intent was to wait a few minutes before moving on but she
didn’t have to wait even a second, the patrol car was followed by five more, effectively keeping her
pinned in her dark corner. "Damn-it." She would have wanted to get further from where she currently
was before calling for a ride, she didn’t want anyone thrown under a microscope, people tended not to
like what they found when they looked into the people she associated with. She waited a few more
minutes but instead of calming down another pack of patrol cars went zooming past. It looked like she
was going to have to cave in and call someone sooner rather than the later the way she would have
preferred. Taking another moment to make sure she was tucked into a dark corner Jennifer pulled her
cell out and dialed one of the few people she knew who wasn’t either neck deep in this shit already or
hospitalized.

She knew that it wouldn’t take long, her cousin always picked up on the first ring if he wasn’t in
the middle of something. "Doug?" It was second nature these days to make sure she was talking to the
right person.

"It’s me, you’re in trouble?" As if he even had to ask.

"I need a ride," she was glad that her cousin understood that keeping it brief not only saved
lives but did wonders in keeping ones conversation secure.

"I know, Malcolm called me," he offered in explanation, "I’m on my way over already, where
are you?" Jennifer hated bringing her cousin anywhere near any of this, she preferred him as far from
this part of her life as possible, unfortunately, unless she wanted to face the government issued cyborg,
her options were limited. The danger at least, or at least of the supernatural kind was over for now,
that was a small comfort to her as she read off the building number to her cousin. "See you in a bit
Cuz."

"Thanks Doug," with that as a farewell Jennifer disconnected and hoped that she’d gotten far
enough away from the mess that she’d failed to prevent. Malcolm must have called her cousin as soon
as she’d told him to rush Manson to the emergency room because she couldn’t have been waiting for
him to arrive more than a few minutes. At first he pulled onto the side of the road and motioned for her
to jump into the passenger side but with as much hardware as she had strapped on there wasn’t much
of a chance that no one would notice. So she shook her head and motioned for him to entire the alley,
he seemed to understand because without more prompting he backed his car into the alley and popped
the trunk. She in turn didn’t pause in unstrapping the holsters from her body and throwing them each in
turn into the trunk, the last to go was the Remington. As soon as she’d deprived herself of everything
but the pistol at her ankle and the knife in her boot she climbed into the passenger seat.

"Where to?" Another thing she loved about her cousin, he understood there was a time for
words and a time for action.

"The hospital," it had to be her first stop, making sure Manson was alive and was going to stay
that way was priority one.

"How about after that," he asked as he pulled out into traffic and away from the massacre that
she knew if she was going to live with she would have to put behind her and try to forget.

"After that we have a chat with some nice vampires," she didn’t think that she could have
sounded any more or less sarcastic in that moment.

"Is that a good idea?" Jennifer turned and gave her cousins worried profile a once over, some
people she might comfort, some people she might have to lie to, he was not one of those people.

"It’s never a good idea," she couldn’t have been more or less honest. She didn’t think that she
had ever gone to visit with the monsters face to face for information and walked away unscathed. Her
cousin didn’t say anything further on the matter, he didn’t have to, they had both been well schooled in
terms of monsters since they were very young. As soon as she was sure that his attention was on the
road she lifted her shirt up over her ribs to see if she could get a good look at the damage she’d taken
hitting that ledge back on the roof. She clenched her teeth when she got a good look at her ribs, she
didn’t need light to see that they were already turning a nice dark shade of black and blue.

"Jesus Jenny," as soon as he said it she dropped her shirt and let her face drop back into
stoicism.